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This months challenge washosted by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey and Tony of Olive Juice, I had never made Éclairs before and was very excited about the challenge. Well The recipe is quiet easy, the dough came out really well, but my piping skills need some help I eventually made rounds using ice cream scoop. I used the same glaze as last months challenge and made a cheese cream pastry instead of the ones provided and added some cranberries in between. The Éclairs may not look good, but they tasted damn good. My husband actually put Hari Chutney in his éclairs instead of the pastry cream and chocolate glaze, he had it as a sandwich. He thinks they are nice soft buns. I may now just make them to be eaten as a sandwich. And the best part everything was done by 2 hours, including cleaning.

The modifications allowed were:

Under the motto - Culinary Liberty For All, Tony and I thought we should give enough leeway for creativity. What’s the point in cooking if not to cook what YOU want to eat?In terms of modifications of this recipe, the possibilities are endless. In order to maintain some sort of cohesiveness throughout the challenge, here are a couple general guidelines for eclair month at the Daring Bakers.

The dough used for the eclairs must be a pâte à choux from the recipe given below.

Keep one chocolate element in the challenge. The recipe below is for a chocolate glaze and a chocolate pastry cream. You choose which chocolate element you want to keep. Then feel free to mix and match flavors to the base recipe.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:

The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)

Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.

Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:

If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.

In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.

Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:

Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:

The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:

If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:

You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.

Kutti is a sweet made as prasad in Sindhi houses. It is always made when we perform Satya Narayan Pooja.There are a few versions to making this though the ingredients remain the same, the authentic Kutti is simple and made of Wheat flour, Sugar and ghee. Mama used to always add some powdered cashews or Almonds to it but that is optional, feel free to mix any nut or dry fruits.

Kutti has a shelf life of 1 week if stored in an airtight container, outside or in the fridge. At some Sindhi homes breakfast would be Kutti with Papad.

Add the wheat flour and cook on medium heat stirring continuously till you get a nice rich brown color and get the smell of cooked wheat flour. Keep stirring regularly, it will take about 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

I am so thrilled at receiving these awards but Sorry for being late in acknowledging them.

SriLekha from Me and My Kitchen has passed the "Wylde Woman Award" to me. Thank you so much Sri Lekha

The rules of this award are:

1.You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.

2. Link back to this blog site Tammy can go visit all these wonderful men and women.

Purpose of the Award

To send love and acknowledgment to men and women, who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy. It's been a blessing and an inspiration to meet all of you through your wonderful blogs.

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere.

The rules to follow:

When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.

Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.

Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.

Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).

Pallavi of All Thingz Yummy has passed the Blogging Friends Forever award, thank you Pallavi.

The following rules apply to this award:1. Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award2. 4 of them followers of your blog.3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.4. You must link back to who ever gave you the award.

Bhawana of Tastes of India has passed the "Just Nice Photos - Beautiful Site" & "2008 Best Blog Darts Thinker" awards to me, thank you so much Bhawana. She also passed the "Big Bear Hug", Love that award Bhawana thank you once again.

I would love to pass all these awards, but everyone seems to have already received them. Everyone deserves these awards for the time and effort you put in your blogs. I Love everyones blogs and it would be difficult to choose among them.

Kheerni is thickened milk with Cardamoms, Saffron and a number of rich mild spices. Basically it is the Indian version of rice pudding. But here we will be adding Sabudana instead of rice. Kheerni can be made of Rice, Semiya or Sabudana.

Wash the sabudana in a sieve, under running water. Keep Aside to let the water drain completely.

Pour the cream and 2% milk into a wide and thick pan.

Add the cardamom pods/powder and bring to a boil without letting the milk spill over.

Quickly turn heat to medium.

Add the sabudana slowly into the pan, stirring occasionally.

Add the sugar.

Stir now cook on medium heat for about 45 minutes or till the sabudanas are cooked and the kheerni thickened. Keep stirring occasionally.

Add the almonds. Serve hot or cold

This is my contribution to the Think Spice Event hosted by Sunita of Sunita's World. I chose Cardamom, I love cardamom flavour and smell in sweets and we always make sure to add some in our tea everyday.

I was in the process of making carrot rice from left over plain rice, and saw the colors of the Indian Flag. I had some Hari Chutney, I mixed some rice with it to get the green color, the white was plain rice and Saffron grated carrot. I then used photo shop to draw the chakra, with the the 24 spokes of the wheel corresponding to the 24 hours of the day, implying that there is life in movement and death in stagnation, Source Wikipedia - more about Indian Flag here

Tandoori Roti is what hubby and me would always order in restaurants, naan would be called for once in a way. He always called for kadak roti with no ghee, oil and butter and charred (he would send it back for more roasting if it was not done right) and me soft or at least what I call normal roti with my hubbies share of ghee and oil. After coming here we missed it and had to try it, Mom said it was easy and explained it to me. I tried it the next day and we loved it. It is so easy to make and you don't need a Tandoor, though it would be great to have one. Tandoor's are very hot and when roti are cooked in it, due to the high heat the outer shell cooks faster and gets crispy, while the inside remains soft and nice.

Here we use a regular Tawa and Stove to make it, I could not take pictures of the procedure but will do it next time I make these rotis and I have some one around to take them. I have an electric stove and used a grill that I kept on top of the burner and then kept the tawa on top. you can make it directly on top, but I wanted the grilled lines. This can be easily done on a barbecue and an oven but I have not tried these methods as of now.

Shahi Paneer is a little like Paneer Makhanwala, with difference that we use more tomatoes here and no cashew nuts. It is a lighter gravy with all the flavours still there. The picture above does not do much justice, I had a bad Photo day with the weather being so gloomy and all rain and no sun.

Puree it in a blender or is you have juicer you can use that. If using blender you can add little water. About 1/4 cup will do.

If pureed using a blender, pass it through a sieve.

Add salt and Lime/Lemon juice to the collected juice.

Serve.

Note: This is really bitter, but the benefits are in this bitter part. I just had drop of it and could not have more my whole food pipe is reacting to it and I can feel the bitter taste all the way down. But if you have Diabeties there is no better home remedy and have it like a tonic.

Bhawana's Taste of India posts are not updating on TOI. You can view her posts on the left side here on my Blog or you can Subscribe to her Blog.

I tried easycraftsOats Dosa and it was delicious. So simple to make and very healthy. My husband who is not a big fan of Oats to loved it. Thank you easycraft for such a great recipe. I have made some changes to the recipe, for the original click here.

I was thrilled when Zlamushka chose Jai and Bee for the Tried and Tasted event this month.

I love their blog and their pictures. Love the way they experiment with food and all recipes are so healthy. This weekend I was looking for black chickpeas recipe and landed on their blog, the Kadala Curry was something I have never eaten so immediately decided to try it. Bee suggests that this curry needs lots of patience and i followed their suggestion. Love the smell of caramelized onions. It was so different from what we make it, we are so used to putting tomato in everything, this was a welcome change though we added lime to it since we were missing the tangy taste we are used too. We loved it and ate it puri. This is a Kerala dish and normally eaten with puttu, I have not eaten puttu and soon plan to try it with the Kadala Curry. My picture does not do justice but the flavours are amazing. The only difference is I did not add the potatoes, made it more gravy like instead of a dry curry since we were eating with puri and also added lime.

Dry Roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves and red chillies for a minute or so in a hot pan. Keep aside to cool.

Roast the coconut until golden brown. Keep aside to cool.

Heat 2 tsp oil in the same pan fry the onions on a medium-low flame until they are golden brown and caramelised. Keep aside to cool.

Grind the roasted spices, coconut, caramelized onions, turmeric to a fine paste. Use the chickpea water while grinding.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the curry leaves.

Add the cooked chickpeas, the ground paste, salt.

Add the chickpea water.Bring it to a boil.

Simmer till required consistency. Add more water if required and boil.

Add the lime juice.Garnish with coriander leaves.

Pineapple Rasam

I happened to look for Pineapple Rasam and again found a recipe on their blog. Most of the recipes I found used some dal, theirs did not require dal and was quick and easy. I so loved it. I used some garlic instead of ginger and put in a little bit more of tamarind paste.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter.Add the asafoetida, rasam powder, garlic and curry leaves.

Add the tamarind water, pineapple,green chili and salt.

Bring it to a boil.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with rice.

There are so many more recipes that I would love to try. Thank you Zlamushka for this opportunity. Thank you Jai and Bee for these wonderful recipes which I will be making more often now. Your blog is inspirational and the pictures are excellent. Love what you are doing and I eagerly wait for your posts.